Central banking is such a core part of the American economic system that it’s hard to imagine a world without it. However, central banking in the United States is a very recent development – barely over a century old, established in 1913. The Founders warned against central banking, with Thomas Jefferson going so far as to say that he thought a prohibition against central banking was the only thing missing from the Constitution.

While no one could argue that the Founders were opponents of capitalism, they were deeply troubled by the prospect of unchecked speculative capitalism as opposed to productive capitalism. Thomas Jefferson considered central banking to be a bigger threat to liberty than standing armies. What a far cry from both ends of the political spectrum today, who see the needs of the financial sector as the starting point of domestic policy.

“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.”

“And I sincerely believe with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.”